I’ve been asked to find software that will read the SQL Server log to:

Identify anyone making DDL changes

Identify anyone making data changes (i.e., UPDATE, INSERT, DELETE)

Does such a product exist for Microsoft SQL Server 2000? SQL Profiler "kinda" fits the bill, but it takes a lot of disk space, and you can easily lose data if it crashes or fills up a disk. And it could simply be turned off if someone wanted to "mess with" the data.

Indeed. You can check out Lumigent's ENTEGRA, that does exactly what you are looking for. It doesn't have much overhead, and does not use triggers. It may be a bit pricey, but if that's not an issue, it is a GREAT auditing Product. I can put you in touch with a Senior Sales Rep at Lumigent if you are interested. Please email me.

You should be aware that both of these products DO NOT AUDIT stored procedures execution(who executed which procedure and with what parameters). We are currently in the process looking for a product that will provide this functionality. Does any one of such a product?

You could also check out ApexSQL Log which has free lifetime upgrades.

However I suggest you first look at things you need to do for the future to be proactive as opposed to reactive.

1) Eleminate all DBAs except for 1 or 2 and setup a strict change management process but make sure you include a emergency change piece, audit then only needs to be occasional on DDL and as a way to verify the DBAs are following the guidelines.

2) Setup triggers to snapshot the data before and after and log to the tables who requested the change and when modified. In addition deletes should not actually occurr on the tables but instead use a marker for delete which you set and place the requesting into a modified by column. Then a nightly,weekly or whanever process can remove the rows. Include host for further auditing.

Then if you need to audit further a log reader will be best. One thing to keep in mind is that i application uses a generic login for users log will not tell you who the requester was. That has to be built by you.